Let us lift up our hearts.We
lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.It
is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for your promises are sweeter than honey
and you bring justice to your people.

You created the earth,
and raised humans and animals upon it.
You led your people by the hand out of slavery
and yet still they broke your covenant
and turned away from listening to the truth.

In Jesus the Christ, you came to us again,
offering a new covenant, written on our hearts,
so that you might be our God,
and we might know you,
from the least to the greatest.
When he was killed,
you raised him to new life,
and through him, you inspired sacred writings
to bring us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ
and to equip us for every good work,
as with persistent prayer
we seek to build your justice
and plant your faithfulness on the earth.

Short Preface
(for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We thank you for your sacred writings
that lead us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ
and to equip us for every good work
as with persistent prayer
we seek to build your justice
and plant your faithfulness on the earth.

General Prayer of Thanksgiving
(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for your promises are sweeter than honey
and you bring justice to your people.

You created the earth,
and raised humans and animals upon it.
You led your people by the hand out of slavery
and yet still they broke your covenant
and turned away from listening to the truth.

In Jesus the Christ, you came to us again,
offering a new covenant, written on our hearts,
so that you might be our God,
and we might know you,
from the least to the greatest.
When he was killed,
you raised him to new life,
and through him, you inspired sacred writings
to bring us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ
and to equip us for every good work,
as with persistent prayer
we seek to build your justice
and plant your faithfulness on the earth.

Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Paraphrases of the Scripture Lectionsfor Proper 24 - Year C - Sunday 20 October 2019Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary.
Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT)
P. O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with
Permission.

* Jeremiah 31: 27-34

You can count on this, says the LORD.
The time is coming when I will replant the land of Israel and Judah and
raise a new crop of people and animals. In the past I dedicated myself to
wreaking havoc among them, and crushing, demolishing and devastating them.
But soon I will dedicate myself to healing them, and to rebuilding and
giving life, says the LORD. No longer will people
repeat the old saying:

“When the parents eat junk,
it is the children whose teeth rot.”

It will be clear that everyone will pay for their own sins. If it is you
who eats the junk, it will be your teeth that rot.
You can count on this, says the LORD.
The time is coming when I will once again take Israel and Judah as my
marriage partner. Our marriage will not be like the marriage I entered
with their ancestors. Back then I took them by the hand and led them out
of the land of slavery and carried them across the threshold into a home
of their own. But even though I was loving and faithful, says the LORD,
they broke our marriage vows.
But listen to the new marriage vows I will soon make
with the people of Israel, says the LORD:

“I will write my values into your hearts and minds.
I will be your God, and you will be
my people.”

No longer will they need lessons to learn how I want them to live. They
won’t need to spur each other on, saying, “Get to know the LORD,”
because all of them, from all walks of life, will know me well, says the LORD.
I will erase all record of their past wrongs and let them start over with
a clean slate.

........Timothy, stick to the trusted tracks
you have been taught to follow and have found to be true. You know your
teachers and you know you can trust them. Ever since you were a little
fella, you have had a good grasp of the sacred scriptures. From them you can
learn what is needed to gain the life for which we are saved through
trusting in Christ Jesus. All scripture is alive with the life-force of God
and can be usefully employed in many ways: teaching people; exposing lies
and bullshit; getting people back on track; and training people in how to
live right. In these ways, the scriptures help prepare and equip God’s
people for their life-giving work.........Don’t underestimate the importance of
your work. God is watching everything you do. Christ Jesus is the one who
will judge its value, as he will for everyone, past and present. He will
appear and bring everything under his rule. In light of all this, I am
spelling out your job description once again and urging you to give it
everything you’ve got:

• preach God’s message;
• stick at it, when it seems to be going well and when it doesn’t;
• teach clearly and persuasively;
• set people straight when they need it;
• be encouraging.

You will need tonnes of patience as you do all this, because there will be
times when people will not be able to stomach solid truths. Instead they
will start collecting gurus who will pander to their weaknesses and sell
them whatever they are itching to hear. They will block their ears to the
truth and swallow fantasies. But as for you, keep your wits about you at all
times. When hostility comes, take it on the chin. Work hard at spreading the
message. God has given you this work — carry it out to the max.

As he returned from his self-imposed exile, Jacob set up
camp for a night at the place where the road crossed the Jabbok Creek.
During the night, he got up and decided that it would be safer to shift
everyone across to the other side of the creek. So he sent his two wives,
his two maids, his eleven children, and all their belongings across the
creek while he stayed on alone at the original campsite. There in the
darkness, he suddenly found himself wrestling with a stranger. The fight
continued until the first light of dawn. Unable to subdue Jacob, the
stranger swung a low blow that caught Jacob off-guard and dislocated his
hip. Still Jacob would not give up, and the stranger said, “Call it quits!
The sun is coming up and you’ve got a big day ahead of you, so let me go.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not release my grip until you
give me a blessing.”
So the stranger said, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he replied.
“Not any more,” the stranger said. “From now on you will
be known as Israel, because you have struggled against God and against
people and you have held your own.”
Then Jacob said to the stranger, “Please tell me your
name.”
“Do you really need to ask who I am?” the stranger
replied, and then gave Jacob a blessing.
As the stranger departed, Jacob said to himself, “I have
come face to face with God and survived to tell the tale!” So he named that
place ‘Peniel’ which means ‘face of God’. The sun was fully risen as he left
Peniel, walking with a painful limp because of his dislocated hip.